A/N: Sorry for the huge wait! I swear I am trying to get these chapters out as fast as I can!
So I hope you enjoy this chapter, Xav and Anton reunite woooo.
Please please review, I really want to hear what you think of this story so far!
Chapter Fourteen
"What?"
Everyone was staring at him, but Xav didn't care. He had to get to London. He had to help Anton, even if it meant coming out. Anton's safety was his priority, and it made him feel sick knowing his soulfinder was in so much pain.
"I said, I need to get to London as soon as possible."
He was confusing everyone in the room, but he didn't care. He needed to go to Anton.
"That's very out of the blue. What's going on, Xav?" His mom's voice was full of concern, but Xav didn't care about her. Anton was the only thing on his mind.
"Okay, look. I need to get to London asap. It's to do with my soulfinder."
The energy in the room changed all of a sudden. Shock intermingled with concern as everyone began to ask questions, all of them stacking up around Xav but he answered none. Panic was building up inside him, he just needed to get out of here.
"Shut up!" The agitation must have been clear in his voice as everyone became silent. "Look, I can't explain now, just trust me when I say that it's important. I have to get there as soon as possible."
Worried looks were exchanged, but no one pressed for a story. Soon enough, Xav found himself packing a bag for a flight that evening. His stomach was twisting itself into knots inside him, and all he could think of was the pain that Anton was feeling.
He barely even registered saying good bye to his family.
The plane journey was excruciating. Every minute he spent sitting in this plane was a minute he could be using to find his hurt soulfinder. Despite that, he couldn't help the slight tinge of excitement that came with going back to Anton. After six long months without him, Xav would finally be able to see his soulfinder again, to touch him. Even though the circumstances were terrible, at least it had given him an excuse to see Anton again.
"We have reached the halfway point of this flight 91AE7 to Heathrow. We're expecting to hit a little turbulence, but should still arrive at the estimated arrival time." The announcement blared through the speakers on the plane. Halfway there. Halfway towards Anton.
"Excuse me sir, but the plane has landed."
Xav's eyes cracked open groggily. The plane was virtually empty, and a blonde air hostess was shaking him awake. He must have fallen asleep with out realising.
In a shock, he remembered Anton. Instinctively, he reached out to him, just to find more pain, worse this time. He was being tortured, slowly and awfully. It made Xav want to cry, to break down and weep, but he knew that would be no help to Anton.
"Thanks," he mumbled to the air hostess, and got up, rushing out of the plane. He pushed past people in the airport, eager to get out and find Anton as soon as possible.
When he was out, he breathed in the London air, just glad to be back. He never ever wanted to leave again, unless Anton was by his side. And besides, he viewed London more of his home now, because he could really see a future for himself and Anton here. He could see them moving in together in that apartment, getting jobs, just being together for the rest of their lives in this amazing city.
Now he had to think of what to do. He could go straight to where Anton was, he could feel his location through their bond. But it could be potentially dangerous, and Xav may find himself captured himself, which would not help either of them. So even though every instinct in his body was telling him to rush to where Anton was, to see him again, he knew that he had to restrain from rushing to him blindly. He needed to get backup.
Logically, Anton's family would've gone to the police, but Xav knew that he wouldn't be able to go there because he wouldn't be allowed to explain how he knew where Anton was. He would have to go to the Savant Net, which was so interlinked with the police that it wouldn't really matter, but at least he would be going to someone with whom he would be able to explain how he knew that Anton was in pain and where he was.
For a brief moment, Xav considered that the Savants he was going to meet would question whether or not Anton was his soulfinder because they may be as prejudiced as his dad, but in reality it didn't matter because he had to put Anton's safety before anything.
The police station looked entirely inconspicuous, but it was in fact London's centre of Savant activity. Xav had gotten here as quickly as he could; he was even still carrying his suitcase as he hadn't been to the apartment yet.
His eyes must have looked wild, and a sens of regency must have been leaking off him because when he walked in, everyone in the building turned to look at him.
"Are you investigating the disappearance of Anton Blue?" he asked.
A boy around his age maybe a year or two older, with light brown hair that flopped over his face stepped forward. "Yes we are. Do you know him? Or anything about the case?"
It's now or never, thought Xav. He just had to go for it.
"My name is Xav Benedict, and Anton is my soulfinder. I know where he is."
The boy looked shocked, he was staring at Xav with wide eyes as if he couldn't comprehend what Xav had just said.
"You're his soulfinder?" His voice didn't sound incredulous, more like he believed him but was just very, very surprised.
"Yes. I was in America but as soon as I sensed he was in danger, I had to come here. I can sense where he is. We can get him out of there; he's hurt so bad, so badly..." Xav was on the verge of tears by this point. He just wanted to see Anton again so much, to alleviate his pain.
"It's okay, it's okay," someone said.
"Just tell us where he is," said someone else.
"He's in an abandoned warehouse, about five miles from here, next to the Thames."
Realisation began to dawn in people's eyes. They must know the place.
Then the whole room burst into action.
There were people talking on walkie talkies or just to each other, some people were still staring at Xav, some left the room entirely. The boy who had talked to him before stood up and walked over to where Xav was standing.
"I'm Chris by the way. I'm Anton's friend; we met just after he contacted the Savant Net. He never told me he found his soulfinder."
Xav was surprised but somehow glad that Anton had managed to make a friend in his absence.
"Yeah, things got a bit complicated last time I was here..."
"That's what I figured…"
They were interrupted by a woman who addressed Xav. "We're getting ready to go to the location, but we figure that you will want to be there. Are you ready?"
"Yeah. Let's go."
It took approximately fifteen minutes to reach the warehouse. Xav sat uncomfortably in the car next to two men and a woman to whom he hadn't been introduced. Silence enveloped all of them, and Xav couldn't help but fidget around. He just wanted to get to Anton so badly. Every fibre of his body wanted to be with him now that he was so so so close to him now.
"We're here," said one of the men. They all got out of the car without a word and faced the grey building in front of them. He was in there, Xav could feel it.
As they walked in, the people around him drew out guns. They were dealing with possibly very dangerous criminals. They proceeded in silence.
Anton's scream sliced through the stillness. It made Xav flinch, tears springing to his eyes. "This way," someone whispered. Xav nodded, despite the lump in his throat. All he wanted to do was lie down and sob. He could feel the amount of pain Anton was in; it was horrific.
They followed the sounds of Anton's screams without a word, each one louder and more desperate than the last. Xav was on the verge of tears.
Finally they reached the door behind which the shouts were originating. One of the men turned to him. "When we go in there, you take care of Anton; he knows you and trusts you. We need you to get him out of there as quickly as possible no matter what happens. Okay?"
Xav nodded. Anton was his top priority anyway.
Someone kicked the door down and the chaos began.
Two men, one a lot bigger and bulkier than the other, were standing over the limp form of Xav's soulfinder. They both whipped their heads around to face the armed team that were coming for them. Xav didn't really have time to register their faces. He was too busy running towards Anton.
Xav was virtually oblivious to what was going on around him. There was lots of shouting and a couple of gunshots, but all Xav could think about, all Xav could see was Anton.
When Xav reached him, he nearly had a breakdown. Covered in his own blood, vomit and urine, he was a mess. His body was bruised all over in varying colours, and he was bleeding quite badly from several cuts. He wasn't the Anton that Xav had left behind six months ago, it was someone else entirely. And Xav knew that deep down the hurt and pain he could see in Anton's eyes wasn't just from his torture. Some of it had come when Xav had left him.
"Xav?" His voice was hoarse and feeble from all the screaming and he still sounded scared and slightly incredulous, as though he was imagining the whole thing. "Xav are you really here?" He was hopeful, and on the verge of tears.
Xav was crying now. "Yes, it's really me." He laughed, a bittersweet sort of laugh. "WE need to get out of here."
Xav broke the chains holding Anton, who was sobbing, a mixture of everything just crashing down on him, and took him into his arms since he was in no fit state to stand.
Anton was sobbing against Xav's ribs, and tears streaked Xav's cheeks, but somehow they made it out of that warehouse and into the car. "Xav," Anton murmured against Xav's chest. "Xav, I love you so much."
"I love you too. Oh god I love you Anton."
He leant down to press a kiss against Anton's lips, but someone opened the car door. "Joseph and Samuel Winters have been arrested, and will likely go into custody for a very long time. It's over."
Another man said, "We need to get him to a hospital. Now."
When Xav turned back to face Anton as the car shuddered into movement, he found that his eyes were closed.
Anton's mom burst through the hospital corridor. "My baby, oh god is my baby alright?"
The rest of Anton's family were behind her, looking disheveled and concerned. Calypso was crying, and Xav spotted a film of tears in Arya's dark eyes that were being kept in check.
A doctor came out and explained things to Leyna. Anton was going to be fine, he really was, he just had quite a lot of bruising and a few nasty cuts that needed to be taken care of. He'd been knocked out the entire way to the hospital and Xav had tried to help by using his healing powers, but he hadn't been able to do much before they got to the hospital. When he woke up, it was likely they'd be allowed to see him.
Once everything had been explained and sorted out, all of Anton's family came up to Xav to greet him. He wasn't sure how they would treat him, he had left Anton after all, and that probably hadn't gone down too well. But surprisingly, Leyna walked up and hugged him. "I'm glad you're here Xav."
He also received hugs from Calypso and Arya, a man- hug kind of thing from Jed and Finnick and a nod from Nico, but he could see it in Nico's eyes that in some way he blamed Xav for leaving Anton and for hurting him so much.
"We all missed you, Xav. I wish you could have stayed," said Calypso once they had finished saying their initial hellos.
"Well, I'm not leaving now. I'm never leaving him again. It was the hardest and most stupid thing I've ever done in my life. I can't believe this happened…" His voice began to crack, tears threatening to break through and spill onto his cheeks. "How long was he missing?"
"Two weeks."
Anton had suffered for two weeks in that place. He'd been tortured, chained up, broken and bruised for two weeks. Xav nearly burst into tears all over again.
"We were so worried about him, we went to the police and the Savant Net. It just seemed so cruel after all he'd been through. The Savant Net had given him a chance to do something worthwhile finally with his powers, and not it's ended him in the hospital," said Jed sadly.
Their conversation was interrupted by a doctor coming out of Anton's room. "You can go in now. It seems he only has surface wounds, so I see no point keeping him in here any longer than necessary. He should really just spend time resting and being with the people he loves after the trauma he's been through."
Xav didn't know what to expect as he opened the door and went into Anton's room, but Anton was sitting up and smiling at him. He looked so much better than he had a few hours ago, despite the fact that the bruising was still bad and he had a lot of bandages bound around his skin.
"Xav…" he breathed as Xav entered the room.
"Oh my god, Anton baby I'm so sorry." The words were gushing out as he ran across the room and hugged Anton. He just needed to hold Anton, and to have Anton hold him back this time. Having Anton's strong arms around him just made him melt inside. "I'm so so sorry," he whispered again. Anton was shaking underneath him.
And then they were kissing, and it was six months of agony, of the pain of being apart, it all crashed into this one kiss. To feel Anton's lips underneath his own again was an indescribable sensation. Anton's lips were so familiar, and it had been far too long since he'd kissed them. His hands flew to Anton's face, just to hold his jaw as the kiss deepened, every emotion he'd felt in the last six months just pouring out of him. It was long and slow, and passionate and romantic, and angry and hard, it was all of these things all melded into one kiss.
When they finally broke apart, a few "I love you"s were muttered, but they eventually managed to untangle enough to let Anton greet his family. He needed to talk to Anton properly, but now was not the time or place. Instead it was better to just witness the reunion and be glad that Anton was here, and that he was okay.
"So they're probably going to let you out tomorrow, which I good. How do you feel?" asked Leyna. Her voice was full of motherly concern.
"I feel…better I suppose. It's hard to really think about what happened, if I'm honest. I'm just glad that I'm out of that place. And, as I believe, we have Xav to thank for that." Anton turned to Xav once again. "Thank you so much for saving me Xav. You really and truly are my saviour now."
"Anytime." His voice cracked as he remembered their first meeting, how Anton had called him his saviour to make a bit of a joke. So much had happened since then, and now Xav may have helped save Anton's life, without a hint of a joke.
"I think that when he gets released, Anton should stay with me, at least for a little bit. I mean, I know that you're his family, but I can heal him fully, and fairly quickly too. And…I need to spend some time with him. But it's Anton's decision." He needed be with Anton, after the months they'd spent apart.
Anton looked at his family, then back at Xav. "You guys can come visit us all the time. Xav's right, we need to be with each other for a little bit. I promise it won't be for too long."
"Oh, honey, it's okay. We get it," said Leyna.
Anton gave her a feeble smile. "I'm tired. I think I'm going to get some sleep."
Xav kissed his forehead lightly, his lips gently brushing over Anton's hairline. "I love you," he whispered as Anton closed his eyes.